Also called Isis with the cow horns, Isis-Hathor of Philae.
Their story
From the New Kingdom onwards Isis often wears Hathor's crown of cow horns and sun disc, and the two goddesses shared roles as mother of Horus and as queen. The Contendings of Horus and Seth offers a story for this: Horus in anger cuts off his mother's head, and Thoth gives her the head of a cow. Plutarch tells a softer version in which Hermes replaces her crown with a cow-horned helmet. At temples such as Philae and Dendera the two were worshipped side by side.
Best times to give to them
- Beautiful Festival of the Valley
- Wepet Renpet
- the epagomenal days
What they like being given
- milk
- bread
- flowers
- music on a rattle or sistrum
- incense
How to honour them
- Honour Isis and Hathor together as mother and lover, if both speak to you.
- Remember that Egyptians often blended gods without seeing them as the same in every way.
How they can help you
- motherhood
- love
- confidence
- understanding how Egyptian gods combine
Symbols
- cow horns with a sun disc
- sistrum
- nursing mother and child
This is a syncretic form rather than a separate goddess; Isis and Hathor each have their own entries.
Sources
- The Contendings of Horus and Seth (Papyrus Chester Beatty I)
- Plutarch, De Iside et Osiride 19
- Dendera temple inscriptions
More Egyptian goddesses
- Isis Great of Magic, mother of Horus
- Bastet Protector of the home, lady of joy
- Hathor The Golden One, lady of love and music
- Sekhmet The Powerful One, healer and protector
- Maat Truth, balance and right order
- Nephthys Lady of the House, comforter of the grieving
- Taweret The Great One, guardian of mothers
- Amunet The hidden goddess of the primordial eight